She must learn again to speakstarting with Istarting with Westarting as the infant doeswith her own true hungerand pleasure and rage.

-- Marge Piercy

Jan 19 Exprayeriment #27 -- Now, Be the Word

God, I am willing to release all that is not part ofYour Divine Plan for my life.Thank you for the gift of this new year, the hope of new beginnings,and the inspiration to walk closer to You each day.

-Catherine Ponder and Alizabeth Rasmussen

For last week's Exprayeriment, we invited you to consider choosing a word for the year. Maybe your word has found you already. Maybe you're still waiting. Maybe, like Robin, there's no word but rather a simple commitment to follow your own bright star. Maybe instead of choosing a word, you've given your word to yourself in the form of resolutions, intentions or a Success Covenant with God. The point is, there are all kinds of ways to welcome a new year and capture the magic of the new beginning it represents.

This week we're going to focus on what needs to be released in order to truly embody the word you've given or been given. It can be easy to get so caught up in expectations and outcomes and goals that we're tempted to skip over the hard work of first letting go of what does not serve us. Release work creates mental, emotional and spiritual space within which true change can take place and, as you've no doubt figured out by now, it's on-going, ever-deepening process.

So start where you are. When you reflect on your word (or resolutions or star), what's in the way of you being able to fully embody or become it? This week, notice when you run up against the edges of that resistance and then use the prayer above to begin to soften those edges. As you do this, you may find it easier to lean further into the possibilities your word represents. You may also find that the resistance gets stronger, or that releasing one layer reveals others. Most likely, all of these things will be true...such is the dance of co-creating with God. :-)